Culture Sesame Street writer confirms Bert and Ernie are Gay - Bertstrips officially canon now

https://mashable.com/article/sesame-street-bert-ernie-gay/?europe=true

The queer fan community have long known that Bert and Ernie were gay Muppets. It's just taken a little bit longer for the rest of the world to catch up.

In an interview with Queerty, one of Sesame Street's original writers, Mark Saltzman, finally confirmed the rumors. According to Saltzman, Bert and Ernie aren't just gay. He thinks of them as a "loving couple."

"I remember one time that a column from The San Francisco Chronicle, a preschooler in the city turned to mom and asked 'are Bert & Ernie lovers?'" Saltzman told Queerty. "And that got passed around, and everyone had their chuckle and went back to it. And I always felt that without a huge agenda, when I was writing Bert & Ernie, they were. I didn’t have any other way to contextualize them. The other thing was, more than one person referred to Arnie [Saltzman's partner at the time] & I as “Bert & Ernie.”

Of course Bert and Ernie are gay. No one wants to hang around their roommate that much, regardless of how good they are at chess. How could Ernie put up with Bert's pigeons if he didn't love him in that way?

Saltzman explained how his own same-sex relationship became a model for Bert & Ernie — even if the rest of the cast wasn't aware of the underlying queer dynamics:

"And Arnie as a film editor—if you thought of Bert with a job in the world, wouldn’t that be perfect? Bert with his paper clips and organization? And I was the jokester. So it was the Bert & Ernie relationship, and I was already with Arnie when I came to Sesame Street. So I don’t think I’d know how else to write them, but as a loving couple. I wrote sketches … Arnie’s OCD would create friction with how chaotic I was. And that’s the Bert & Ernie dynamic," Satlzman said.

Justice, served. Twitter seems to think so too:


Deborah Temkin, Ph.D

✔@DrDebTemkin


The fact that it’s confirmed that Bert and Ernie are in fact based on a real life couple just makes me smile from ear to ear https://www.queerty.com/exclusive-bert-ernie-couple-finally-answer-20180916 … #lgbtq


Klaudia Amenábar // let a blind actress play Toph@kaludiasays


Bert and Ernie were just confirmed gay and Snuffy was a closeted depressed gay how was this not the #1 trending news story today this is the most important cultural event of our time



Jesse Kelly®

✔@JesseKellyDC


Bert is the only gay man in history with bad eyebrows.
However, I have more questions for Bert and Ernie: Are they still monogamous after all these years? Do they have to attend couple's therapy to manage Bert's anal retentiveness? Did any of them ever have a thing with Big Bird?

Regardless of their answers, we should all be so happy for their love.

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I love how Frank Oz remains level-headed throughout this twitter mess. We need more of the reasonable old guys in social media.

And about gay representation in pre-school cartoons, the closest you can get are gay parents. You don't want to show romance to kids who still believe in cooties.
I thought Frank Oz was dead. Shows how much I know.

Also, just for fun:

The most disturbing thing I remember from a sitcom was that the Tanner family had their bathroom carpeted.

GROSS.
 
a lot of the exceptional individuals on Twitter are going on about "BECAUSE MUH REPRESENTATION" as if some poor kid 7 years old who suddenly realizes he or she is gay will commit seppuku if they don't see gay characters on TV. The whole representation narrative bothers me because it basically reduces those who are "different" to technical sociopaths and bigots lacking in empathy for anyone different from themselves and can't identify with anyone different from themselves, which is counterproductive because it basically validates the alt-right when they say that people who are different are inferior because they can't empathize with huwhitey or whatever.

The full irony is these "MUH REPRESENTATION" people claim to be full of empathy.
 
As a child I always assumed they were cousins or something.

Also aren't most of the sesame street muppets supposed to be children? Why we gotta know what they're doing in bed?

They have and have always had separate Twin Beds. They each have their own bed in the same room. You know, like brothers. Regardless of whatever Saltzman's head cannon might have been. " I always pictured them as gay!" Uh huh. And that Elmo dude always pictured the kids naked in his head cannon while working on the show. Some things are probably better left unsaid and locked away in your mind.
 
People bringing up Miss Piggy and Kermit miss the point. Sesame Street is desexualized because it is for young children. Muppet Show was aimed at older audience. Just like how Pee-Wee did not sexually assault a hypnotized "audience" member on the kid's show, but did do it in his stage show.

Also:
If you're reading sexuality into Muppets you really should re-consider your life.
It really is bonkers. I view most people as asexual. It is so inconsequential in real life unless you are looking to suck his or her penis. Who cares with fake characters? They are completely nonsexual. Why do faggots have to sexualize everything? Just let these character exist in their own little world without thinking about them having sex.

I hate fagets so much. Twinks are good for porn, but all non-twink faggets should be killed.
 
Fuck, little me thought they were brothers so now Sesame Street got really weird.
As a child I always assumed they were cousins or something.

Also aren't most of the sesame street muppets supposed to be children? Why we gotta know what they're doing in bed?

Growing up and watching Sesame Street, I always saw them as two roommates, nothing more, nothing less. My young mind saw no big deal with two friends sharing an apartment.

Even if they aren't children per se, as @Bugaboo asked, they still had childlike curiosities and interests, so imposing adult values on them such as sexual identity - even if it's just one writer's unofficial headcanon - definitely comes across as creepy. :cryblood:

Also, fuck TWITter users for shitting on Frank Oz. He isn't necessarily anti-LGBT; he just doesn't see Bert and Ernie as such.
I love how Frank Oz remains level-headed throughout this twitter mess. We need more of the reasonable old guys in social media.

The way Frank Oz conducted himself with class, poise, and dignity reminds me of @GethN7 's posting style: willing to acknowledge other points of view and respectfully disagreeing as necessary even while others resort to personal attacks and such. Semper Fi, Frank. :winner: Sad that his current naysayers can't return the same civility he's shown them.
 

Wasn't Elmo's puppeteer forced to resign for soliciting a minor? Maybe before we start shoving a bunch of gay shit into kid's shows with the force of a turbo-powered bulldozer, we might want to see who's behind all of this shoving? Or what effect exposing children to adult depictions of sexuality has on said kids?
 
Given what he did during his life, it sucks seeing it getting destroyed like this.

That annoys me the most. Jim Henson gave so much for children's entertainment and they're destroying his work just to get woke points. It's cheap and classless.
I can see why Frank Oz is saying this. He knew and worked with Jim Henson.

Edit:
This JUST showed up on my Tumblr dash now.
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Bonus:
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Great commentary there from cum-mage.
 
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